Publication and Presentation Announcements by Batya Shoshani and Michael Shoshani (Israel)
“No One Can Hate You More than I Do”: The Perverse Interplay of Life and Death Drives in Roman Polanski’s Film Bitter Moon
(2023). Ma’arag: The Israel Annual of Psychoanalysis, 2021-2022 (10): 231-254.
In this paper, the authors explore the depiction of perversion and the associated interplay of life and death drives in Roman Polanski’s 1992 film, Bitter Moon. A theoretical discussion is presented regarding perverse organizations of mastery and sadomasochism. Perversion is viewed as an expression of the death drive under erotic disguise, in which the destructive fingerprint of the death drive is revealed at every stage, having as its ultimate purpose the destruction of the other. Based on these theoretical insights a dialogue is developed with Polanski’s film, which brings to life the theory of sadomasochistic relations through the multidimensional aesthetic medium of cinema. It is shown how Polanski’s cinematic oeuvre conveys the essence of the difficult and complex experience of perverse relations, where the life and death drives and their transformations are manifested. The portrayal of the sadomasochistic relations in this film contributes to the experiential knowledge on which the authors promote insight to potentially enrich clinical work with patients with perverse organizations.
Psychoanalytic Understanding and Practice with Psychotic Mental States
(2022). Tenth Conference of the Polish Society for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, October 22, Gdansk, Poland.
(2022). “Forme ale narcisismului” [“Forms of Narcissism”] Conference, Fundația Generația, July 18-23, Bucharest, Romania.
This presentation aims to share our belief that psychoanalytic work with psychotic mental states requires broadening the perspective and theory to include ontological and existential thinking and insight. Our experience working with psychotic patients has taught us that reaching out to the psychotic individual involves reaching into the psychotic part that exists in all of us, as Bion taught. In the last 15 years, having witnessed an increase in difficult patients on the perverse-psychotic continuum, we gradually realized that our psychoanalytic tools were limited. Bion’s later work appealed to us, and at the same time we became acquainted with the work of Heidegger and Gadamer. The presentation offers detailed case descriptions and vignettes of patients with psychotic and other severe disorders, emphasizing the existential anxieties at the heart of these disorders. We found that Heidegger’s (1927) words do justice to the mental state of these patients: “on the fringe of being, with only one foot in life and with no right even to that.”
Michael Shoshani, Psy.D., MBA
Tel Aviv, Israel
Email Michael Shoshani
Batya Shoshani, Ph.D.
Tel Aviv, Israel
Email Batya Shoshani
